Monthly Archives: November 2013

When I heard Martín Espada read his voice was a powerful baritone. Espada is a scholar for the people who knows that poetry like bread is for everyone, and when in doubt, quote Whitman, “I contain multitudes.”

ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW RED TREESWhen I see the red maple,I think of a shoemakerand a fish peddlerred as the leaves,electrocuted by the stateof Massachusetts.When I see the red maple,I think of flamboyán’s red flower,two poets like flamboyánchained at the wristfor visions of San Juan Baywithout Navy gunboats.When I see the flamboyán,I think of my grandmotherand her name, Catalán for red,a war in Spainand nameless laborersmarching with broken rifles.When I see my grandmotherand her name, Catalán for red,I think of union organizersin graves without headstones,feeding the rootsof red trees.When I stand on a mountain,I can see the red trees of a century,I think red leaves are the handsof condemned anarchists, red flowersthe eyes and mouths of poets in chains,red wreaths in the treetops to remember,I see them raising brancheslike broken rifles, all the peoplewho are now red trees.”-Martín Espada, Imagine the Angels of Bread

Be kind to yourself, because the bliss of your own kindness will flood the police tomorrow,because the cow weeps in the field and the mouse weeps in the cat hole—Be kind to this place, which is your present habitation, with derrick and radar tower and flower in the ancient brook—… – from “Who Be Kind To” by Allen Ginsberg, Planet News

In these videos Willi Nolan speaks eloquently about why it’s abhorrent that oil and gas companies are trying to force their way into Wabanaki territories in New Brunswick. Fracking poisons the water and pollutes the sky and earth in the name of shortsighted greed. Nolan beautifully defends the earth, women and humanity and talks about injustice and oppression towards the land and first nations people that activists are working tirelessly to challenge. The truth is the light, righteousness is victory, “the forest and the water will be protected…no more poisons.”

“…Hawks kill a hundred times more rats and mice than they do chickens. The same is true for coyotes. They help control the squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks and raccoons too. I guess out west in sheep country they probably do kill a few lambs every year, but that’s part of the price you’ve got to pay. I don’t know where people get the notion that they can reap the benefits of the land for free. That it all belongs to them. Humans sure as shooting don’t work for free. You get someone to rid your house of rats and termites or cockroaches, he doesn’t do it for nothing, so why do folks think the hawks, eagles and coyotes will. The few chickens or an occasional lamb they take is their share. And they earn it more honestly than a lot of humans do. Every year the birds and worms take their share of the apples, peaches and dewberries. You plant corn in the garden and the crows and the coons are going to get their part of the harvest, in fact raccoons know better than you when it’s ready. There’s no getting around it. You’ve got to pay, and when you think you can get away with not, you’re in trouble.” -from Harvesting Ballads by Philip Kimball